Control » Servos » Yost Engineering ServoCenter™ 3.0

Jul 16, 2007 - Control » Servos » Pololu SSC - The Pololu Serial Servo Controller (SSC) provides great fine tune control for up to 8 servo's per board. The Pololu SSC understands the Mini-SSC II protocol but adding in the native protocol of the SSC provides better control over speed and resolution for your servos.

Jul 10, 2007 - RoboRealm MSRS Simulation - If you don't have a robot and want to experiment with vision processing RoboRealm now can be used with the MSRS simulation package to process camera images generated by the simulation engine. This is a great and fun way to experiment with vision routines without needing to have a physical robot around.

Jul 01, 2007 - Control » Motors » Dimension Engineering Sabertooth - RoboRealm is excited to announce our first DC motor controller module. The Dimension Engineering Sabertooth module adds an interface to the Sabertooth DC motor controller. The Sabertooth motor controller can handle two DC motors up to 5A per board with a maximum of 8 boards per PC. This module allows you to control DC motors from your PC via Serial or USB signals using the Sabertooth board.

Jul 01, 2007 - Histogram » Levels - The Histogram Levels module provides a way to control the gamma and scaling of color channels. This module will process each color channel to bend and scale the color values into better visual results.

Jul 01, 2007 - MSRS 1.5 - The RoboRealm MSRS 1.5 interface has been updated with more routines to capture variables from RoboRealm into the MSRS system. Have a look at the new MSRS 1.5 package that includes a GetVariableExample orchestration program to help you incorporate RoboRealm data into your MSRS orchestration applications.

Jul 01, 2007 - Histogram » Exponential - To counter the Logarithmic Histogram module arrives the Exponential Histogram module. This allows you to convert an image to Logarithmic space, perform some filtering and then restore the image to linear space using the Exponential Histogram.

Jul 01, 2007 - Display » Display Line - The Display_Line module provides a way to automatically draw lines from one point to another. This is useful to better visualize what shape extracted points create. See what we did using a laser pointer and the display_line module to connect the laser points.

May 28, 2007 - Control » Robots » Parallax Boe-Bot - The Boe-Bot is one of Parallax's best sellers. With many add-ons and applications available it also proves to be a very versatile product and is used widely in academic, research and hobbyist communities. RoboRealm has added a Boe-Bot module that provides control of the Parallax Boe-Bot from RoboRealm. The module provides you with an easy way to send commands to the Boe-Bot based on variables created within RoboRealm.

May 15, 2007 - Transforms » FFT - The Fast Fourier Transform is a staple tool in signal processing. The new FFT module adds the transform capabilities of the Fourier Transform to RoboRealm. The transform is useful for removing unwanted periodic noise within images. Perhaps those with bad camera reception may find the filtering capabilities of the FFT useful.

May 04, 2007 - Colors » Combine RGB - What's a world without color? The Combine RGB module lets you recreate color images based on other channels. Now you can process image color channels separately and recombine them into a new image. We've also added XZY, YIQ, and HSV modules to our color conversion set. All color modules have also been upgraded to convert back from their respective color spaces into RGB.

May 04, 2007 - Extensions » Photoshop Plugin Host - RoboRealm can now work with some Photoshop Plugins. You can now use Photoshop plugins that don't require configurations to be saved within RoboRealm. Note that not all Photoshop plugins will work as most are not typically meant for video processing and thus may be quite slow.

Apr 16, 2007 - Point Features » Moravec Interest Operator - Similar to the Harris corner detector the Moravec Interest Operator identifies interesting points within the image. Interest points are often used for object tracking and recognition. They also tend to identify corners of objects as corners are great features to track since they are scale, translation, rotationally invariant.

Apr 16, 2007 - Control » Other » Lynxmotion Sequencer Interface - RoboRealm has partnered with Lynxmotion to provide an interface from RoboRealm to the Lynxmotion Sequencer program. Now you can trigger complex servo sequences from RoboRealm based on what RoboRealm can see.

Apr 03, 2007 - Microsoft Robotics Studio - RoboRealm has partnered with Microsoft to interface the smart camera capabilities of RoboRealm into the Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.0 platform. The MSRS system can now interact with RoboRealm to request low level image processing and computer vision tasks that are then acted upon within the MSRS system. Follow the installation instructions to learn what the possibilities between the MSRS and RoboRealm have to offer.

Apr 03, 2007 - Control » Servos » Lynxmotion SSC-32 - The Lynxmotion SSC-32 module allows you to interface RoboRealm to servos using a controller made by Lynxmotion called the SSC-32 Servo Controller. The servo controller supports up to 32 channels of 1uS resolution. In addition the board provides synchronized movement so that all servos will update at the same time. The board also supports 4 digital or analog inputs for adding additional sensors to your robotic projects.

Apr 02, 2007 - Leaf LISP API - RoboRealm is happy to announce a new API connection to LISP specifically towards The Leaf Project. The Leaf Project is an open source implementation of an artificial life program based loosely on the game Creatures. If you are a hobbyist robot engineer and you're looking to create an interactive robot be sure to have a look at the Leaf Project.

Apr 02, 2007 - Other » Floor Finder - Knowing where the floor extends to beyond the immediate robot vicinity can be very helpful in avoiding obstacles. In fact, Stanley, the winner of the past DARPA grand challenge, combined a vision technique with lasers to win the race. The Floor Finder module implements part of this strategy (minus the lasers) to provide you with some basic path planning capabilities.

Mar 16, 2007 - Interface » Mouse Module - We did something totally new today ... we were able to grab and drag a window around on the desktop without touching the mouse or keyboard. We did this by just moving around a red ball. This is not going to make the mouse extinct but it is a fun new interface that makes a lot of sense in some situations.

Mar 12, 2007 - Transform » Affine - Not all images are perfectly aligned with the camera view. The Affine Transform provides a way to align an object into a more uniform view in preparation for measurement or other attribute analysis.

Mar 12, 2007 - Transform » Radial - If you take pictures with webcams that use smaller lenses you will notice a rounding of straight lines. These are known as barrel or pincushion distortions. Using the Radial transform you can correct for those distortions to improve the image content.

Mar 02, 2007 - Control » Robots » Surveyor SRV-1 - RoboRealm now supports the Surveyor SRV-1 robot with the addition of the Surveyor_SRV1 module. The folks at Surveyor have designed a really nice robot for use in machine vision and we're excited to join RoboRealm and the SRV-1. To show you a quick example of what is possible have a look at our wall avoiding tutorial that shows off the new module by helping the SRV-1 avoid walls.

Feb 19, 2007 - Control » Robots » IRobot Create - Many of you have probably already discovered IRobot's new Create Robot that was announced in Vegas at CES. We were very excited about seeing its potential given its very inexpensive price range. We've happy to announce that we REALLY like the Create! It is just a great robot base. For those of you who don't like to get into the mechanics of building a robot base from scratch it is a really nice platform. We're happy to announce that RoboRealm now speaks Create's Open Interface language! If you're interested in incorporating vision into the Create then you will need to check out what RoboRealm plus the Create have to offer.

Feb 17, 2007 - Control » Cameras » Creative Live! Motion - Joining the Logitech Orbit camera RoboRealm now supports the Creative Live! Motion webcam that also has pan and tilt built into the camera. These cameras are a great way to experiment with pan tilt systems incorporated with vision.

Feb 16, 2007 - Threshold » Population Threshold - Natural images often produce many small pixel groupings that need to be clustered together to produce larger blobs that can be further processed by other modules. The Population Threshold module provides a quick way to cluster those unconnected pixel groupings while ignoring other sparse clusters.

Feb 05, 2007 - Matching » Shape Matching - We've really improved the shape matching capabilities of RoboRealm by adding in multiple shape detection and filters to remove bad or unwanted objects. The Shape Match module provides you a way to examine objects based solely on their shape (or silhouette). You can also read a great forum discussion that lead to its improvement at Object Analysis.

Jan 28, 2007 - Shapes » Circles - Detecting circles is a very basic need for many vision projects. We've introduced a new contour based circle detector that should help you detect those illusive balls, coins, traffic lights, finger tips, etc.

Jan 22, 2007 - Transforms » Mosaic - For many of you one camera was not enought! RoboRealm now supports up to 16 simultaneous cameras! This should be enough for everyones camera needs. Using multiple cameras is easy. Just plug in all available USB cameras and use the modules to process them as needed. You will notice the cameras being listed in many of the dropdown menus within modules that make sense. For example, the Mosaic module can be used to create a mosaic of all the camera images. Other modules include the Marker module (easiest way to switch the current processing to another camera view), the Math module, the Replace Blob modules, and more.

Jan 15, 2007 - Control » Cameras » Logitech Orbit - Need an easy to use pan/tilt device? Have you looked at the Logitech Orbit camera? We've had one for a while and are very pleased with the image quality. We've now introduced an Orbit module that allows you to control the pan/tilt actions of that camera. This is a great solution for a pan/tilt camera that can be attached to any PC based solution using USB.

Jan 15, 2007 - Edges » Connect Points - Often after using an edge detector or thresholding an image you are left with many points along a potential edge that are slightly disconnected. Subsequent processing would work better if these points were connected. The Connect Points does just that. Points that are close to each other are connected together and help "connect the points".

Jan 15, 2007 - Interface » Keyboard - We introduced the Joystick control a while back and it became quickly apparent that many of you don't have Joysticks! We've handled that issue by providing a keyboard interface to perform a similar function. Now you can control your USB missile launcher using your keyboard.

Dec 28, 2006 - USB Missile Launcher Tutorial - Our latest tutorial introduces two new modules. The Joystick module allows you to control your robotic projects using an ordinary joystick. The USB Missile Launcher module provides control over the Dream Cheeky USB Missile Launcher. The tutorial shows how we used those two modules to setup joystick control of the Launcher.

Dec 27, 2006 - Phidgets Servo Control - The Phidgets servo controller has been added to the ever expanding servo/motor controller modules. Using USB connections the Phidget servo controller allows control to a maximum of 4 servos. Given the ease of use the Phidget servo controller is great for controlling your robotic projects.

Dec 20, 2006 - Display Date/Time - Sometimes it is nice to add a time/date stamp to your images as they get saved - the Display DateTime does just that.

Dec 18, 2006 - Blob Replace - Once blobs have been detected it is sometimes desirable to replace them with well defined shapes such as circles, squares, etc. The replace blob module will replace the blobs present with a shape containing the same area as the blob.

Dec 18, 2006 - RoboRealm WebServer - A new WebServer capability has been added to RoboRealm to allow you to stream the processed images from RoboRealm to web browsers or other Internet streaming devices.

Dec 11, 2006 - Bilateral Filter - A new mean filter that doesn't blur object edges has been added. The bilateral filter preserves edges while blurring the internal parts of an object. Successive instances of this filter can turn an image into a cartoonist type of image.

Nov 20, 2006 - Additional API Examples - The new API continues to be quite popular. To continue our support for multiple languages we've added in example wrappers for Java and CSharp. Download all API examples or check our documentation to see if the API is appropriate for you.

Nov 05, 2006 - Lego NXT - We've introduced the Lego NXT module that will allow you to control the Lego NXT Mindstorms robot using vision. We've also added a new tutorial of a modified TriBot picking up a blue ball and then placing it towards an orange cone. Check out the tutorial at Lego NXT Ball Picker or see the documentation to see how you can use the new module to enhance your Lego Robot!

Oct 30, 2006 - Canny Edge Detection - The Canny edge detection algorithm is considered one of the best edge detection techniques currently available. The Canny module enhances the current RoboRealm capabilities of edge detection by implementing the Canny Edge Detection technique. See the documentation for an example of why the Canny edge detection technique is one of the best edge detection techniques available.

Oct 27, 2006 - Flicker removal - Basic PC based webcams can have a lot of noise pixels especially in low light situations. The flicker removal module helps to reduce the flickering effects of low light situations. The flicker module will stabilize image pixels by ensuring that only the most frequent pixel value is presented in the final image. See the documentation for an example of how the flicker removal module can stabilize your low light images.

Oct 24, 2006 - Thresholding with Hysteresis - We've introduced a new intensity thresholding which is simpler than the color thresholding module but also offers the capability to use hysteresis when thresholding. Hysteresis is most commonly known as part of the Canny edge detection but is also useful when thresholding any image. See the documentation for an example of why hysteresis is such a powerful concept in image processing tools.

Oct 23, 2006 - Additional API Examples - The new API has been quite popular. To help out others in different languages than C/C++ we've added in example wrappers for COM (Visual Basic, WScript) and Python. More to come in Java, VB.NET and CSharp. Download all API examples or check our documentation to see if the API is appropriate for you.

Oct 13, 2006 - RoboRealm Server API - Now you can treat RoboRealm as an image processing server and command it from your own custom robot applications! We've added in an XML based API that allows you to load, save, grab, put images and variables to and from RoboRealm. Along with the RoboRealm Extensions and VBScript programming we've reached a new level of customization that is possible between your programs and the vision processing capabilities of RoboRealm. Whether you just need to simply grab an image (yes, the JMF java folks now have another route) or perform blob extraction you'll find RoboRealm to be a very useful tool.

Oct 12, 2006 - Display Image - To aid in seeing more than one image view at a time we've added the Display Image module that can perform picture in picture display. It is a nice one for recording video sequences!

Sep 17, 2006 - Media Reader - A new and improved file and Internet streaming reader module has been added. Instead of just AVI files you can now playback mpg, wmv and asf files for use in RoboRealm processing. You can also use the module to receive Internet streams. See documentation for an example URL that streams video from an office overlooking an airport.

Sep 11, 2006 - Serial Communications - Use the serial communication module to send signals to robotic devices whose protocols are not directly supported by RoboRealm. For instance you can use it to communicate to the VEX Robotics System or to your own program running on a Basic Stamp processor!

Sep 05, 2006 - Harris Corners - Detect corners using the Harris corner detector.

Aug 29, 2006 - Vocal Communication - RoboRealm now supports the Microsoft Speech API 5.0 and allows you to command RoboRealm to speak or listen to vocal commands.

Aug 28, 2006 - Lego Mindstorm - RoboRealm now supports the Lego Mindstorm interface. Using an inexpensive usb webcam and the PC you already have you can now add vision to your RCX brick projects!

Aug 27, 2006 - Distributed Robotic Vision - RoboRealm can now feed images to other machines running RoboRealm to enable distributed parallel processing

Aug 14, 2006 - RoboRealm now uses DirectX 9.0! We saw a 2x speedup in frame processing from VFW but we will still default back to VFW for those that do not have DirectX installed. If you're running RoboRealm and have directX download the latest version to see a speed increase!

Aug 11, 2006 - Pseudo Coloring - artificial coloring can reveal aspects about images that you may not have noticed

Aug 03, 2006 - New tutorial on tracking green objects

Jul 17, 2006 - Geometric, Color, Moments - more image processing statistics

Jul 11, 2006 - Java Extension - now you can process webcam images in Java!

Jul 10, 2006 - Hough Transform - lines, Lines, LINES

Jul 3, 2006 - Midpoint Filter

If you don't find what you need in RoboRealm, then check other OpenSource/FreeWare Vision Packages. If you're looking to buy a robot have a look at some robot stores.